Village Center for Care

Developing a Person-Centered Therapeutic Recreation Dementia Program

Village Center for Care's nursing home Village Nursing Home implemented a Person-Centered Therapeutic Recreation Dementia Program on one of their units. All disciplines were trained on Person-Centered care, Problem Solving and Communication. The RNs, LPNs, and Recreation Therapists were trained on "coaching-supervision." The curriculum was designed with the consultation of Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI). The Project Director held "post-implementation" discussion/support groups to help support and sustain the program.

Linda Buettner consulted on the 2nd phase of the program. CNAs worked with Recreation Therapists to design meaningful activities for residents. Curriculum was developed for training CNAs in Resident Assessment and Activity Care Planning. From this training CNAs and Recreation Therapists jointly developed Activity Care Plans.

The three goals of this Dementia Program were:

Empower CNAs with communication and problem-solving skills

Help nurses and professionals to become effective "coaches" rather than micro-managers

CNAs and recreation therapists to collaborate on meaningful therapeutic activity planning and implementation